Norton Announces GSA Search for New DHS Contractors in Ward 8 (3/30/09)

Norton Announces GSA Search for New DHS Contractors in Ward 8

March 30, 2009

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that a formal request will be issued on April 7, 2009, to begin construction the Department of Homeland Security headquarters on St. Elizabeths west campus. Following Norton’s work that has got the $1 billion in stimulus and appropriation funding. The requests in two phases, will first narrow the applicants to five of the most qualified, and phase two select a contractor from the final five. Norton, chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, that has jurisdiction over the construction, said that the Coast Guard, which will occupy buildings, will be approximately the size of the new Department of Transportation on M Street. Norton said that the contract will be for a firm fixed price design build structure that will include elements envisioned in the Master Plan, approved by the National Capitol Planning Commission on January 8, 2009, including a green roof on the building, LEED Silver rating and building into the hillside to preserve the landscape.

Norton, who also serves on the Homeland Security Committee, said “I am particularly concerned that this very exciting development move forward, on schedule, at a time when the District, already at 10% unemployment, most needs jobs. What began as a project expected to create office space for 14,000 employees to revitalize Martin Luther King Ave in Ward 8 is likely to be the only significant new source of jobs in the months ahead. The project will generate 28,000 jobs during the period of construction. With the work on the re-use of dozens of other structures on the west campus and as many as three new buildings planned, the project will be a job creator for the next decade or more.”

Norton has worked closely with the Ward 8 business community, GSA, and the Department of Homeland Security to engage small businesses and to require pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs to assure that jobs and small business opportunities are central from the beginning of the project. For the $28 million spent on clean-up and site stabilization, 100 percent has gone to small and disadvantaged businesses, and 40 percent of those to businesses in the District of Columbia.

On April 30th, GSA will seek a construction management firm to oversee or manage the project until the entire compound of new and re-used historic buildings is complete. Norton, GSA, and the Small Business Administration have been continuously holding small business training sessions for District residents, with another planned for April.